Decorating Pages: TV and Film Design Kim Wannop - Set Decorator

Production Designer Liz Toonkel's new film “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” is a whimsical film about a little shell who lives with his grandmother in an Airbnb and is on a quest to find his family. It is adorable! Liz and her team designed a magical little world for Marcel. Using household items at the scale of the shell and making a home and fanciful little gardener this adorable character. Liz is also the Production Designer of the HBO Max mini series “The Lady and the Dale”. The films’ wonderful use of multimedia storytelling mixed in with recreations of this fascinating life of a conartisit / entrepreneur makes for a must see.

In this episode I speak with Production Designer Laurence Bennet who is best known for his work on his Oscar nominated films “The Artist” and “Crash”. His current project "The Offer" on Paramount Plus, is a monumental effort to pay tribute to one of best films of all time “The Godfather”. This period limited series gives a behind the scenes of the making of this iconic film and shows how we all work to get our passion to the screen. For the past several years he has taught at Escuela Internacionál de Cine y Televisión, in San Antonio de Los Baños, Cuba—the multi-disciplinary film school founded by Gabriel García Márquez. We also touch upon how he designed the pilot of the 19 year running of “Gray’s Anatomy”, working with Robert Redford and how I actually worked with him on a show that was quickly canceled before it even aired ;)

In this episode I describe the process that I take in preparing to get the words to screen. From getting the first call, budgeting, research, crewing and then decorating the sets there are many things that come up in prep. I give an overview of my process and examples from my experiences in starting up shows in TV and films.

In this episode I talk about the films, TV shows, magazines, books and social media that has inspired my path to becoming a Set Decorator and inspire my decorating now. From trips when I was young to Disney World to checking out the latest Instagram accounts, inspiration is everywhere. It's also about what keeps me inspired and keeps me getting up at an ungodly hour to work in this business.

In this episode I speak with Set Decorator William DeBiasio. His story is interesting because it goes to show it’s never too late in life to start in this business. With his desire and drive, coming from a retail background, he started at a prop house, then a set dresser,  continued to buyer and eventually a Set Decorator.  He had long stints on "The West Wing", "Alias", "Chuck", "Melrose Place", "Pretty Little Liars" and more. He currently is on the fifth season of “The Rookie '' which has its  season finale airing this week. WIlliam has extensive knowledge of Hollywood history and behind the scenes stories of some iconic shows and films like “I Love Lucy”, “Hello Dolly”, “My Fair Lady” and more. I never knew he had this talent!

This is part two of my interview with Director of Photography Simon Dennis. We deep dive into dorking out about our love for the film “The Conversation”. He talks about shooting “Peaky Blinders”and “Black Sails”, and the super cool set up he has on set to adjust color, and bring up references. I hope you caught last week's episode with him. We talked about how he got into being a DP, not knowing who Ryan Murphy was, then working together for five years on his project such as “Pose”, “Ratched”, “Hollywood”, ”American Crime Story: Impeachment”. You can watch his latest work "Candy" airing now on Hulu.